Talk:Jet Ski

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Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Personal watercraft which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 10:01, 19 November 2025 (UTC)

Requested move 15 June 2026

Jet Ski → Jet Ski (brand)Jet Ski (brand) – The article for the generic type of product, Water scooter, Personal watercraft, was recently moved to Jet ski. Since the difference between the article names is just one case, they are too easily confused with each other. This article should be renamed to Jet Ski (brand) to prevent confusion. Slothwizard (talk) 19:51, 15 June 2026 (UTC)

• Maybe move the DAB page here as no clear primary topic. Crouch, Swale (talk) 20:42, 15 June 2026 (UTC)
• Support: This situation is confusing. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 21:03, 15 June 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose. Was there a discussion to move the generic page to jet ski? The page's lead calls the product a personal watercraft. Jet Ski is a trademark, and personal watercraft is widely understood. We should avoid using brands as generic topics (e.g. kleenex, xerox or skidoo). pburka (talk) 03:23, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

  I guess that was discussed here. I think that move was a mistake, and now it's led to this awkward situation. pburka (talk) 03:34, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

  I do not have an opinion on whether it was right to move that article. It seems to be a similar situation to Aspirin and other subjects with genericized trademarks. However, since that article was moved, "(brand)" should be added to this branded Jet Ski article to prevent confusion. Having two articles titled "Jet Ski" and "Jet ski" is not a good situation. Slothwizard (talk) 03:39, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

  Aspirin is a bit different, because we never had a page specifically about the Bayer product. I think xerox or kleenex might be better examples, although they're both more common as brand names than generic terms. Even though "jet ski" might be the most frequently used name, WP:COMMONNAME advises us that "Ambiguous ... names for the article subject, as determined in reliable sources, are often avoided even though they may be more frequently used by reliable sources". That move created ambiguity, and the easiest way to fix it is to revert the move from personal watercraft (which, in my opinion, is also more formal and therefore more encyclopedic). Pinging participants in last year's discussion Zxcvbnm, Blindlynx, Myceteae, Randy Kryn, Gjb0zWxOb, Andy Dingley, Necrothesp, Walrasiad. pburka (talk) 15:17, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

  I agree that aspirin is a bit different. I'll have to look the rest of the discussion more closely before weighing in. Thanks for the ping. —Myceteae‍🌈 (talk) 16:02, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

  • I know kleenex is used as a generic term in the US, but it certainly isn't in the UK (we call them tissues). Xerox and skidoo may sometimes be used generically, but not overwhelmingly so. Jet ski, however, has become the overwhelmingly generic term for personal watercraft everywhere and most people wouldn't use (or even know) the latter name. In any case, we've already had that discussion. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:27, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
• Support. These things are very clearly generically called jet skis rather than personal watercraft. Most people would not think of a specific brand if they saw the name and they wouldn't think of any distinction between lower case and upper case. The current title is clearly ambiguous. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:20, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
• Support I think this name change resolves a lot of the ambiguity while also not infringing upon WP:COMMONNAME for the main article about jet skis. Gjb0zWxOb (talk) 15:22, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
• Oppose The current hatnote reads as follows "For the brand-name watercraft, see Jet Ski. For other uses, see Jet Ski (disambiguation)." This is in line with WP:DIFFCAPS policy. "Jet ski" the vehicle is always written in lowercase, so the uppercase SHOULD go to the brand. The current support !votes are blatantly ignoring policy simply because they don't like it. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 15:25, 16 June 2026 (UTC)
  • And how, exactly, does that help Wikipedia's users? That should always be our main concern. Not enforcing policies known only to insiders. "Jet ski" the vehicle is always written in lowercase... It absolutely is not. Upper case is very, very commonly seen for the generic term. -- Necrothesp (talk) 15:32, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

    Perhaps if you gave clear proof that Jet Ski in caps was "very, very commonly seen" to describe non-Kawasaki vehicles, I would change my !vote. Because the onus is on the person seeking to move a page to prove their point... otherwise, this would be a clear case of DIFFCAPS regardless of your beef with the policy itself. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 15:40, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

    Any Google search will bring up countless reliable sources that capitalise the generic term. And DIFFCAPS is certainly not as clearcut as you (and many others) seem to think it is. -- Necrothesp (talk) 16:14, 17 June 2026 (UTC)

    You say there are "countless" reliable sources but never listed any. In other words, "citation needed". My searches found nothing of the sort, it was lowercase in all cases. ᴢxᴄᴠʙɴᴍ (ᴛ) 21:37, 17 June 2026 (UTC)